What Should I Upgrade?

[RickMa]

I have an FX 8120 CPU which I have heard nothing but bad things about online. After seeing the Assassin's Creed Unity system requirements I feel like I should upgrade. My graphics card is a GTX 770 by the way.

I'll have $550. My concerns are that my FX 8120 is too slow, I'm starting to run out of space on my HDD because of how big games are getting, and my motherboard only has a 4+1 phase VRM. The mosfets get really hot if I overclock my CPU and it throttles which gives me inconsistent performance. At stock speed my CPU fails to meet my needs.

What upgrades should I get?

 

[lullemannen90]

If you feel like your CPU doesn't do what you want it to do, then you should consider a new one. Personally I recommend Intel, but that's up to you. The GTX 770 is a really good card, and shouldn't be a problem. If you must overclock, then buy a MOBO that supports better overclocking potentials.

 

[Winly]

I believe you need to save up a bit more and just wait till you get some extra cash. Best route is to build a new system and use components you already have such as hard drive, cd/dvd drive, video card. I will go the Intel route.

 

[LookItsRain]

Sell your current AMD platform and get a i5 4690k and a good z97 board. The 8120 was pretty bad and upgrading to a 83XX isnt worth it.

 

[tucansam200]

To address the HDD issue, if you are in fact going to go Intel (I preferred AMD for my first build, and the 8350 is a pretty decent chip IMO) then you would still need a bigger hard drive. For 550 I'm not sure you could build an entirely new intel system, but depending on your current system you could at least upgrade it to a decent level with that amount. FX 8350's typically are under 200.

 

[LookItsRain]

To address the HDD issue, if you are in fact going to go Intel (I preferred AMD for my first build, and the 8350 is a pretty decent chip IMO) then you would still need a bigger hard drive. For 550 I'm not sure you could build an entirely new intel system, but depending on your current system you could at least upgrade it to a decent level with that amount. FX 8350's typically are under 200.

550 can easily do it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($213.98 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G1.SNIPER Z97 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $403.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-09 11:22 EST-0500

 

[tucansam200]

To address the HDD issue, if you are in fact going to go Intel (I preferred AMD for my first build, and the 8350 is a pretty decent chip IMO) then you would still need a bigger hard drive. For 550 I'm not sure you could build an entirely new intel system, but depending on your current system you could at least upgrade it to a decent level with that amount. FX 8350's typically are under 200.

550 can easily do it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($213.98 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G1.SNIPER Z97 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $353.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-09 11:20 EST-0500

Yeah, fair enough. I was thinking too much and not considering using old things like the case etc. My bad 😛

 

[RickMa]

I have a 2TB HDD with 530GB of free space, a 500GB hard drive that I still haven't even touched yet, and I also have a 500GB external hard drive that has been formatted and I still haven't put anything on it since the format. So I have over 1.5TB of free space. So after thinking things through I don't think I need a new HDD yet. I also don't need a Hyper 212 Evo because I already have a Hyper 212+. All I need is a Motherboard and a CPU upgrade. Which I think I'll be going with a Core i5 4690K and a Z97 motherboard whichever motherboard is the best deal in December.